Cannes: H+K, Ketchum Notch Up Grand Prix Winners

CANNES—Hill+Knowlton Strategies and Ketchum have added to the PR industry’s haul of awards in Cannes, credited with providing public relations support for the Cyber and Creative Data Grand Prix winners, respectively.

H+K Strategies was part of the team responsible for the “Aland Index/Baltic Sea Project,” which won one of the Grand Prix awards presented in the Cyber category tonight. The “idea creation” agency, which entered the campaign on behalf of the Bank of Aland is Swedish creative agency RBK Communication, with H+K the only other agency credited on the campaign.

The campaign, which was entered in the corporate social responsibility category of the Cyber awards, built on the bank’s philanthropic efforts, which had seen donations to various environmental projects based on deposits in its environmental accounts. In response to a growing environmental crisis in the Baltic Sea, the company used social and print media to promote a more streamlined approach to giving, and to launch a new membership card, developed in partnership with KPMG and MasterCard.

The effort doubled the number of applications for the bank’s grants, and garnered 11,000 digital followers.

Meanwhile, Ketchum is the PR agency on the Whirlpool 'Care Counts' campaign, which was led by Digitas LBi Chicago. The program helped Whirlpool install washers and dryers in schools to show how the simple act of laundry impacts attendance rates.

Other PR firms credited with supporting roles for Gold winners in the Cyber category include Ketchum, for its work on the Cheetos Museum campaign—also recognized in the PR Lions—and PMK*BNC and Edelman, both of which worked on the “Hostile Takeover” campaign for Activision.